The Honourable Joan Burke, Minister of Education, today advised clients of the on-line student aid application process of an incident of exposure of personal information.

The Student Financial Services Division was recently notified of an incident of unauthorized access to a client�s personal information. As a result of this incident, a student was able to view the personal information provided to the on-line application site by other individuals.

The on-line site for student aid was immediately shut down, the problem was identified and corrected, and the site was re-established the same day. There are approximately 48,000 individuals who had information in the database at the time of the exposure. Based on the information gathered to date, there are 90 individuals who have had their information accessed by an unauthorized source.

"Only authorized users of the student aid site can access the on-line application forms by logging on with a username and password," said Minister Burke. "The database is not available to all Internet users. I assure students, parents and spouses who may have provided information to the on-line site that the problem has been rectified. The site has been reviewed by an external security firm and confirmation has been provided that personal information is now secured."

The database for the on-line application site includes addresses, birthdates, Social Insurance Numbers, earnings and other income-related information provided since January 2004 in the student, parent and/or spouse�s declaration, consent and signature forms.

"Individuals who have had their information accessed by an unauthorized source are being contacted to notify them of the incident," said Minister Burke. "Work continues on checking each and every file to identify others who may have their information compromised. If any further breaches are identified, those individuals will also be notified immediately."

The Student Financial Services Division worked closely with the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Office (ATIPP) to take all necessary steps to correct the problem which caused the potential exposure and will continue to do so to protect personal information on a go-forward basis.

An office has been established to provide assistance to clients of the Student Financial Services Division. Anyone requiring information can phone 1-866-771-7173, Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 p.m., or e-mail inquiry-sa@gov.nl.ca.

Clients of the on-line student aid application site may wish to take the following steps to minimize potential risk of exposure of personal information:

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